It’s not a busy place, the lost poem depository.
Sheltered in a mulberry grove and made up of thatch and bamboo
it’s always open.
When snow perches on bamboo stalks,
rain basins in cassia leaves,
willows sweep away stray maple leaves
and sunlight streams in leaf way passages,
it remains open,
seeing two visitors everyday – at 10 and 2 –
one repeat and one unique
both asking for the same thing – always directed at the old man –
sat behind the cassia desk in beard and rags –
have you seen my poem?

And, as always, he shows them outback
to the garden
with the pond inhabited by two egrets and five catfish
with the bamboo thicket where the gibbons swing
and the criss crossed grass
where the lost poems
idle and spin, sit and gallop, glide and idle.
And, as always the repeat visitor finds what they misplaced
and the rookie does not
and then coming back the next day at 10
rags and beard behind the cassia table
rises and takes them outback to show them whats new
(and inevitably theirs) and then patiently waits for the 2 o’clock
in the lost poem depository.

The late Miles Kington invented an organisation called “The Sock Exchange” which, he claimed, matched single socks. Maybe there should be a Couplet Exchange so poets who have mislaid a matching line can find a suitable one?

This is a lovely notion–I like the gibbons, and I’m so glad the repeat visitor gets rewarded. Very nice. One question I have is whether you want outback as one word–it brings up Australia to me! (Which is okay.) K.

smiles…this is fantastical…a fairy tale…to all our lost poems…in the lost n found…or maybe the pound…no in the lost poem depository…i would be glad that someone found one and thought enough to leave it there…smiles.

This is quite creative. I never thought of poems as being lost, but now that you mention it there are a few that I’ve written in my head late at night after crawling into bed, and too tired to get up and write them down I have thought, “I’ll remember it in the morning.” But then I haven’t. Perhaps they are at the depository.😉 Peace, Linda

One of my favorites this week so far. The idea here is great. There are truly lost poems everywhere, literally and in metaphor. The objects you incorporate here are amazing, from nature to animals, done so well. Really enjoyed. thanks